The construction of the alternative universe of PiS, that I described few years back in my first article for Britske Listy (English version here), was an overwhelming success. This system of interlocking conspiracy theories and alternative version of history appeals to many Poles, who believe in it. And “believe” is the right word here, as similarities […]
Essay
Polish media under fire. A great transformation, or a standard changing of the guard?
The overall transformation from public to national media seems to be an indispensable part of PiS’ “conservative revolution”. But Europe looks with worry upon the new Polish government’s introducing new laws, purging the public media and attempting to smother criticism. Changes have never been conducted with such great momentum, on such a scale and with […]
The mutiny of the lemmings
In last month’s parliamentary elections in Poland, the right-wing Law and Justice Party won a clear majority. With the opposition abated, they are now setting their sights on rewriting the constitution and dramatically changing the Polish political system. But will they succeed? This article was written for Visegrad Revue When Visegrad Revue asked me to […]
Tens of thousands of people protested on the streets in Poland. What is their anger about?
Poles voted Prawo i Sprawiedliwość to power as they believed in their promises of delivering “higher quality of democracy”. But for last month Kaczyński and his party did exactly the opposite. Recent attempts to take over the state institution made Poles really angry. According to different sources, 50 000 to 70 000 people took the […]
Why is Polish youth so right wing?
After presidential and parliamentary elections, Poland found itself in totally new situation. For the first time, there is no left in the parliament and the right wing Prawo i Sprawiedliwość has almost all power in it’s hands. With the weak opposition from crumbling Platforma Obywatelska, newbies from .Nowoczesna and few survivors of Peasant’ party they […]
Kaczyński wins. So does Poland as well?
In last month’s parliamentary elections in Poland, the victorious, right-wing Law and Justice Party made history as the first party to win a majority government in a free election. With the opposition abated, they are now setting their sights on rewriting the constitution and dramatically changing the Polish political system. But will they succeed? This […]
Prawo i Sprawiedliwosć sticks out middle finger to its voters.
The number of the hard line Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) followers remains constant and it would not be sufficient to ensure its victory. Therefore apart from people’s disaffection to Platforma Obywatelska (Civic Platform), it owes it’s success to the people, who believed in their picture that new people have taken over and Beata Szydło’s […]
Landscape before parliamentary elections in Poland
Oncoming parliamentary election in Poland might be the most significant ones in more than a decade. Andrzej Duda’s victory in presidential elections earlier this year proved that skillfull play on moods of the public, tired with 8 years of Platforma Obywatelska government, fueled with strong smearing campaign might result in such suprising results as a […]
Refugees like us
Although for the few years we managed to maintain a feeling that tragedy in Syria is „someone else’s problem”, today we cannot ignore it any longer – those „someones” are already here, they are at our borders, they camp at the Slovenian borders or try to cross in leaky bathtubs across Mediterrain Sea. So […]
Our dear Church
Contrary to popular opinion, Poland is not homogeneously Catholic country. Moreover, even Polish Catholics are deeply divided over many issues regarding their church. The subject that provokes exceptionally heated discussion is the question of greediness of church officials. Many Poles may look down at Czechs and treat them mostly as purveyors of good beer and […]